Never have I read finer poetry.

Straight dating online is like trying to find drinkable water in a crisis situation; women are stranded in the ocean, and men are stranded in the desert.

“Arizona toddler…died”

Brian Regan once equipped that he had taken a speed-reading course. “Since then, I can read 2000 words per minute. But…my comprehension’s plummeted.”

I might end up studying to get a math/physics endorsement when I start teaching in Oregon next year. The district I’ll be teaching for has in their collective bargaining agreement that each teacher can request funds for certification exams, and they offer $1000 each year for postgraduate work, so why not? No district I’ve taught for in Texas offers anything like that.

I have been trying since January to get a teaching job in Portland (I live in Dallas) for the next academic year, and this week I was offered positions by two different school districts. This weekend, I have been working out which job to go with, I think I’mma go with the one that pays a little more, might be able to offer funds to offset relocation costs, and has less trafficky access to downtown and Vancouver (I have friends in North Portland and Vancouver.

So yeah…got that figured out; tomorrow I’ll be looking for an apartment, taking my kids to Terry Black’s for some world-class barbecue before Texas is forever in my rear-view mirror, doing some packing, and playing some THPS 1+2.

As someone with ASD, GAD, and MDD (all diagnosed if it matters), smart home devices are an essential service to me. I can quickly set redundant reminders to help me with personal routines, add stuff to my shopping and to-do lists, and quickly get my lights and music set to what I need them to be when I am experiencing an anxiety episode. I definitely understand that my data is good and harvested at this point, and I don’t trust them to have done anything good with it. But these dots have made my life work since I bought my first one, and they’ve significantly reduced the anxiety I used to be riddled with.

You don’t want to play this game with me, son. Whatever you hurl at me about Oregon, I’ll lob back at you something twice as bad about Texas.

I get that Oregon has its hard right people. Hell, most states do. But at least my trans kids gender identity is protected by state law, and my having a trans kid won’t result in me being on the governor’s fucking hit list.

You think that’s bad, get this. In most US states (47), public school students are required by law to recite the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States once per school day, though…for most of those states…students may opt themselves out.

However, in four states (Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Utah), students may not opt themselves out. The school must receive a written statement from a parent or guardian in order to be exempt.

I have taught in Texas public schools since 2005, and I brought this up with an attorney for the teacher organization I joined (not a union as Texas bans collective bargaining for state employees, so our dues are really not much more than lawsuit insurance). He told me that, in the eyes of the state courts, children under the age of eighteen not being yet adults do not enjoy the same right to freedom of speech that adults do. Hence, in the eyes of the courts, a school district would be within their rights to fire a teacher who does not do their part to ensure all students under their purview recite the Pledge during the time it is spoken over the school’s PA system (and the Pledge to the Texas state flag, also mandatory), 1st Amendment be damned.

Thankfully, I got a gig teaching in Oregon next year, so I am heading northwest (through the also miserable states of Utah and Idaho unfortunately) and never looking back.

Ah, Big Stupid enabling the Scammer Class: a tale as old as time.

The most fun I had in Starfield was probably a zero-G fight at one point, can’t remember if it was the main storyline or not. But I got as far as the final main quest line fight, after which New Game+ would become available. I realized before going into it that…I just didn’t care. And I am not one to experience the sunken cost fallacy. So I just logged out, canceled Xbox PC Game Pass, and did something else.

Do cool shit, and be awesome. Living well is the best way to get over the life you you wanted but will never be. The one constant in your entire life is you, so the relationship you have with yourself is the most important relationship you’ll ever have.

So take a solo road trip. See that movie in the theater that you heard was great. Treat yourself to a nice dinner at that fusion place you were wanting to check out. Read and learn about the world. Take a class in that language you wanted to learn. Bake yourself fancy treats. Take on a new hobby. Make art.

To be the kind of person others will find awesome, you have to first become that person; in so doing, the pain of losing that ideal life you are mourning will slowly fade. It will never vanish completely, but over time the pain will become minimal, like rediscovering a tiny paper cut on your finger that you’d forgotten about.

Like Dave and Buster’s play cards and games that cost 7.8 credits (at least right now, higher weekend evenings because of dynamic pricing) and needing to get out a fucking calculator to do the conversion from dollars to points to figure out you are spending $3.72 or whatever to play a single shitty game.

This…this right here is the reason I quit playing this game, the reason I couldn’t quite put my finger on. It was just too fucking disjointed, you are so right.

has unusual relationships with

That’s a funny way to spell commits sexual harassment against.

Ewan McGregor does.

After you traded your Sierra for a Sienna, did you take a Siesta?

To anyone who doesn’t believe you and thinks they might actually he able to get better rates through an app like that…

You know how health insurance companies charge hefty premiums with ridiculously high copays, but you figure “If I really need something covered, though, they’ll pay it and I won’t go bankrupt”, but yet they still find a way to have so few scruples that they’ll fight you on the services you have them billed for because they are a corporation beholden to shareholders and will do everything in their power to hang onto every single dollar possible?

Your car insurance is provided by a corporation.

“Tesla shareholders are money-hungry idiots” is what I got out of that. They are like Lenny…when shit goes south, they just keep holding on tight, no matter how much worse they make things, until next thing you know Curlys’s wife is dead.

(No offense meant to those with brain damage…the poor decisions they make are understandable and not their fault, of course. And I know that phenomenon isn’t unique to Tesla shareholders.)

Their purpose was to push their anti-leftist agenda by repeating the false narrative that Mexican drug cartels murdered every other presidential candidate save one…their favored candidate…this Jewish leftist scientist woman. SeveralAnts wasn’t stating anything in good faith.

More misinformation, eh? Really going all in with it, huh?

Marriage for same-sex couples nationwide was legalized by the Supreme Court of both countries: Mexico in August 2010, and the United States in June 2015.

As for socialized medicine, Mexico clearly has it, and the United States clearly does not.